Hook PC & HDTV to audio receiver

[itsanss]

Considering a 7.1 surround sound system for my new home I'll be moving into the first of the year.

Would like to hook an HDTV and my PC to an audio receiver.

Don't have a TV yet, but will get a late model, higher end HDTV sometime in the future. Also, do not have a receiver yet, and don't really know anything about them and don't know what to look for.

The PC I have has an ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (NewEgg.com Item # N82E16813131365R ), which has an S/PDIF Out, 1x Coaxial, 1x Optical.

I don't have a speaker system yet (what I have now is several speaker sets rigged into one system for my PC, but only as a left and right channel, not "true" surround sound). A friend has a couple BOSE Acoustimass (they are the AM-5 if that matters) hooked to his laptop PC, two for the "center" speakers on his HDTV home theater, and a couple on his golf cart. They sound INCREDIBLE on each application. I'm thinkin' of going with the BOSE Acoustimass cube speakers for my setup because they sound great, are compact, and look nice.

On the PC and TV I'll be playing games, watching shows and movies in SD and HD via cable, Netflix, and DVD and BD-ROM, and listening to music via HDD, cable, and iPod/iPhone.

So, is it just a matter of getting a nice receiver that'll do 7.1 and getting the right cable to make it work? Receiver(s) that I should get considering? HDTV(s) I should be considering (thinkin' a Samsung 46" LED-LCD would be sweet, myself )? Do I need anything special to make this system easily switchable between PC games on the PC and movies on the TV? The TV'll also be hooked to the PC, by the way. Although gaming, e-mail, Internet surfing will be done on my three 27" monitors.

I hope this ain't too confusing. lol

Thanks, ya'll!!!


P.S.


Here's my PC specifications:

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme 1366 RT CPU Cooler

ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound

ASUS EAH5870/G/2DIS/1GD5/A Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity

mushkin 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Times 2 (RAID 0) - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit for System Builders

LG Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 6X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA
Internal Blu-ray Burner 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Model GGW-H20LK

Logitech G19 Black 104 Normal Keys USB Wired Standard Gaming Keyboard

RAZER DeathAdder Precision Optical Gaming Mouse - 3.5G Infrared Sensor

Times 2 - Western Digital My Book Essential WDH1U10000N 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

Times 3 - LG W2753V-PF Black 27" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Full HD 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 50000:1 w/ Smart Package

APC BR1500G 1500 VA 865 Watt 10 Outlets Power Saving Back-UPS RS 1500

 

[astrallite]

Bose speakers are not well suited for movie applications. Small drivers beam forward which gives a very small listening window. I found at a friend's place with his $4k acoustimass setup we had to have the subtitles on discern the dialogue consistently.

Also Bose uses proprietary connections and will not work with an audio/video receiver. You should go to a local Best Buy Magnolia or Frys or a Brick & Mortar Audio store if your area has one, and audition speakers to see which ones work for you.

 

[itsanss]

I know what you mean. These little speakers certainly put out the sound, but kinda' sorta' in a single direction. Although, the ones I would get are the "double-cube" speakers, the top one being able to swivel.

I see what you mean about the connections. The cubes take a speaker wire type and the receivers I've looked at take an RCA lookin' thing.

I don't have any of those stores where I live. lol I live in southwest Oklahoma. However, there's a Best Buy in Wichita Falls, Texas and one in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Never heard of the other stores.

Any recommendations on some speakers that ya'll have had good luck with that I could check out online (NewEgg, etc.) ?

Thanks

 

[fajin]

Cool set up man!

I am in the middle of a similar pursuit as you but to a smaller scale and have been considering the Logitech 5.1 Z 5500

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121120

The advantage with this is that it has digital input (optical/coaxial) and the reviews are pretty stellar. 95% positive on newegg. Its only about $350USD at newegg or $400USD at BB.

I plan on all entertainment coming from the pc passing through hdmi to the z5500 and then to the tv. Or maybe getting a sound card for the Z5500 and a separate card for video through hdmi to the tv...although im considering plasma over led lcd because of the supposed improved viewing angle?

Also just planning on having 1 monitor...not 3. And I like the looks of the new 27 inch led 1ms response time Samsung and Asus models.

May I ask why youre interested in 7.1 over 5.1? Do you have a really large room to fill with audio? Ive never really compared the 2.

 

[astrallite]

What's your budget? If it's on the smaller side I would recommend an Onkyo HTS home theather box system.

The advantage with this is that it has digital input (optical/coaxial) and the reviews are pretty stellar. 95% positive on newegg. Its only about $350USD at newegg or $400USD at BB.
.

Z-5500s are desktop speakers and not suited for home theater. It also has severely limited connections, no HDMI or HDCP, no switching, up-conversion, and cannot process HD sound

 

[itsanss]

Cool set up man!


May I ask why youre interested in 7.1 over 5.1? Do you have a really large room to fill with audio? Ive never really compared the 2.

Thanks! I certainly like to think so...especially for the money invested thus far. lol

7.1 versus 5.1.....bigger is better!!!!!!!!!! Haha Actually, I don't really know. Just thought I would go all out since I was going. I suspect that the room this is going in would not be considered large by anyone's standard. It's larger than my room that I have 7 speakers and 1 subwoofer in right now (not true surround sound, just rigged up speakers that happen to surround me. lol) It's actually a single wide trailer that I'm movin' into. I know it's 14' wide and 66' long, but don't know what the length of the living room is. A guess would be 14' wide by 18' long. I need to measure it, I reckon. lol

What's your budget? If it's on the smaller side I would recommend an Onkyo HTS home theather box system.



Z-5500s are desktop speakers and not suited for home theater. It also has severely limited connections, no HDMI or HDCP, no switching, up-conversion, and cannot process HD sound

Don't really have a budget lined out exactly. Looked at the Onkyo HTS990 7.1 HTIB system. Looks great and has a lot of good reviews. However, there are a lot of other reviews that say that it's not a bad system, but that for the same money a better system can be built piece by piece.

For kicks, let's say $1,000 or less is my budget.


Really appreciate this, ya'll!!!


P.S. Just keep in mind that right now I have two Boston Acoustic desktop speakers with small subwoofer with a Philips Magnavox 3 CD changer home stereo thing (two big speakers, two small) wired into the subwoofer auxiliary out, and a Bose AM-5 single cube speaker (rescued from the trash) piggy-backed into the Philips stereo and I think it doesn't sound bad at all. By today's standards and updated equipment, this stuff is probably junk. So is just an HTIB gonna' be the system for me?

 

[astrallite]

You really should be posting this in an A/V Forum.

Try this:

http/www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=89

and this:

http/forums.audioholics.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=18